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Friday, August 20, 2010

Nirvana - Midtown East

It's a shame I haven't had a single Iftar with my family. Luckily yesterday at the 1 week point, I was able to have dinner with 2 out of 3 of my brothers. We met at Nirvana. I usually don't fancy the east side, but after such a great time last week, I figured why not.

When I walked in, I was asked if I ordered take out. Not quite the way I expected to be greeted, but it is what it is. The first floor of Nirvana is virtually empty. It has a bar and a few seats. I suppose it could be a hot night spot that I'm not aware of. The main dining room is upstairs.

We sat down and after we ordered our food, we were treated to the chef's amuse. A lovely little pastry with a hard shell filled with chickpeas.

It was pretty good, but I was a bit thrown off by the fact that it was cold. Still good, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was served hot.

They ordered Lamb Potato Croquettes.

The looked like lots of potato not enough lamb. Apparently it was stuffed with lamb. After a short while, our entrees arrived.

I ordered Chicken Vindaloo.

I love a good vindaloo. It's essentially chicken and potatoes in a spicy sauce. This vindaloo was not as spicy as I would have liked, but it was very tasty.

Our entrees were served with a bowl of rice for the table

but of course we ordered some naan.

We were pretty full by the end of this meal and decided not to have dessert, but class as they are at Nirvana, they gave us complimentary dessert.

This pistachio ice cream topped with a little pastry was not that good, so I can understand why they were giving it away. The ice cream tasted like ICE cream. You know that taste when you've had the ice cream in the freezer juuuust a little bit too long. Yea, that. nay the best.

Nirvana is a pretty good Indian restaurant in midtown. They have a few things going for them on their very creative menu and I would definitely go back to try a few things like the crab curry or the rabbit dish I spotted on the menu. They need to kick up the fire on their spicy dishes and perhaps get a fresh batch of ice cream, but other than that it was a good experience. It was also a full house but the staff did an excellent job of paying attention to each table.